Tournament system for multi-player games with dynamic server balancing

ABSTRACT

The number of participants competing in each of a plurality of separate game environments, each simulated by a separate game server, in a multi-participant electronic skill-based game tournament are periodically balanced to ensure fair and equitable gaming experiences for all participants. Game environments may periodically be deactivated to ensure optimal occupation of remaining active game environments. Balancing of game environments may be conducted on the occurrence of predetermined events.

BACKGROUND

The applicant's co-pending U.S. patent application Ser. No. 11/380,452,filed Apr. 27, 2006, relates to a handicapping and differential rewardsystem for skill-based games, and is incorporated herein by reference inits entirety.

Electronic computer and video games have been in existence since thesecond half of the 20^(th) century.

The period leading up to the 1990's was dominated by single playergames. However, with the rapid development of the internet outside ofacademic circles in the beginning of the 1990's and the introduction ofthe game DOOM (id Software, 1993), multiplayer games quickly gainedwidespread popularity. DOOM allowed for multiple PCs, each operated by adifferent player, to be connected in a network and, therefore, for eachplayer to have a character present in a single, simulated game world.

The introduction of DOOM contributed greatly to the popularisation of anew genre of games called 3D-shooters or First Person Shooters (FPSs). Acommon characteristic of these games is that the player's perspective isthat of a person holding a weapon of some sort and the play of the gamegenerally involves the killing of enemies which, in the networked formof the game, normally includes other players.

In addition, the development of the Internet also led to the developmentof a large number of multiple-player games capable of being played overcomputer networks. These games made it possible for players that are notphysically in the same location to compete against each other in thesame game environment.

FPS games and other networked multiplayer games are today played byhundreds of thousands of players simultaneously playing against eachother in thousands of separate games played across thousands of gameservers. A common feature of all such games is that a limit is placed onthe number of players that can be accommodated on each game server. Formany such games, such limits may exist because of the high processingburden and/or high bandwidth requirements that each additional playermay place on the game server. Occasionally this limit may be furtherreduced if the game environment being played in is (in virtual terms)too small to accommodate the number of players that the game serverwould otherwise physically be able to manage.

The software required to run an instance of an FPS game server is, forthe vast majority of modern games, very resource intensive. The resultis that, generally, only a limited number of instances of the gameserver software can be run on any given computer if acceptableperformance is to be achieved. This may, for example, be done to ensurethat a game server is able to process game data and serve the results togame clients as optimally as possible, thus ensuring the best possiblegame experience for all players. Common usage of the term “game server”therefore refers to a single computer running at most only a fewinstances of the game server software for a specific game , eachinstance of which in turn simulates a single instance of the gameenvironment. For many FPS games it is currently possible to run multipleinstances of the game server software on a single Personal Computer(PC).

A game server can be construed to include both a single computer runninga single instance of game server software which simulates a single gameenvironment, as well as an instance of game server software capable ofsimulating a game environment. In the latter example, it may be possiblefor a single computer to run a number of instances of the game serversoftware, each simulating a separate game environment. Likewise, a gameenvironment can be construed to include a portion of a larger, compositegame environment.

A number of FPS game tournaments have been held in the past and arestill being held from time to time. Two forms of these tournamentsnamely online and Local Area Network or LAN-based are currently beingemployed. Online tournaments may be characterised in that players maylog onto game servers remotely and may compete in game environmentssimulated by the game servers against other players logged onto the samegame servers. LAN-based tournaments may involve the setting up of alarge number of game terminals and associated input/output devices overa Local Area Network (LAN) in a single location and connected to one ora number of game servers. Players then gather at the location tocompete.

In both of the above tournament formats players may pay entrance feeswhich entitle them to participate in the tournaments. The fees may bepaid into a pool from which tournament prizes may subsequently be paid.However, as a result of the tournament formats currently employed thisalone is generally not able to generate sufficiently large prize poolsto be attractive to large numbers of players. Large prize pools are thususually only offered where one or more sponsorships have been obtainedby the tournament organizers. In order to make the tournament prizes aslarge as possible, it may be desirable that a very large number ofparticipants enter a tournament. The desirability of a large number ofparticipants stems from the additional entry fees that will be obtained,as well as from the fact that more entrants may attract highersponsorships due to enhanced exposure for sponsors. However, theabovementioned limitations on the number of players that can play oneach game server make it impractical to allow large numbers ofparticipants to compete in any one game environment, therebysignificantly limiting the number of entrants that may compete in anyone tournament.

Several different tournament formats are currently employed. One ofthese is the league format, in which each player or team competes atleast once against every other player or team. By its very nature, thisformat cannot accommodate large numbers of players, and thus this formatis generally only used as a form of regional or conference-stylequalification process in order to determine which players or teamsqualify for the finals of a tournament. In most cases, the finals employan elimination format, in which individual players or teams competeagainst other individuals or teams in heats or rounds, with the winnersprogressing to subsequent rounds and the losers being eliminated. Indouble elimination events the losers drop down to a lower bracket andcontinue to compete against other losers, while the winners progressthrough the upper bracket. The eventual final is between the winner ofthe upper bracket and the winner of the lower bracket. Anelimination-style tournament thus normally comprises a number of rounds,each of which comprises a number of separate games, played in a numberof separate game environments each simulated by an independent gameserver. This format imposes substantial time constraints on thetournament, once again inhibiting the number of potential entrantssignificantly.

Game servers have been treated as self-contained worlds that areindependent from all other similar game servers, and hence the playerson separate game servers compete only against other players on the samegame server, and players are never moved between servers for thepurposes of competition. Players could up to now choose to move betweenservers, but this required that they exit the current game and start onthe new server afresh. Generally no score was carried over from theprevious game server to the next.

As a result, current tournament structures for tournaments are generallyset up such that a match between two players or two teams must be playedto completion before the winner may proceed to the next round wherehe/they will face another winner from the previous round. As a result,each match is treated as a discrete event and there is no movement ofparticipants between matches during the course of play. One consequenceof this is that it may take a substantial amount of time to complete atournament involving even a relatively small number of players or teams.For example, it is common for 64 team events of this format to take 3 to4 days to complete, with a similar time period being required for thecompletion of 256 player individual events.

SUMMARY

This Summary is provided to introduce a selection of concepts in asimplified form that are further described below in the DetailedDescription. This Summary is not intended to identify key features oressential features of the claimed subject matter. Nor is this Summaryintended to be used to limit the scope of the claimed subject matter.

Embodiments may provide methods of conducting a tournament for anelectronic multiple-player game. Methods may include allocatingparticipants in the tournament to a plurality of game environments,allowing participants in each of the plurality of game environments tocompete against one another, eliminating a subset of participantsachieving predetermined results from the tournament thereby creating oneor more open participant slots in the plurality of game environments,and re-allocating one or more remaining participants to one or more ofthe plurality of game environments according to predetermined rules.

Additional embodiments may provide a tournament system for anelectronic, multiple player game. The tournament system may include aplurality of game environments, each game environment simulated by aseparate game server and each game server being inter-connectable via acomputer network, a plurality of input devices, each input deviceassociated with a tournament participant and connectable to a gameserver, and each input device enabling the tournament participant tocontrol a simulated player in one of the plurality of game environment,a display associated with each input device for displaying the actionsof the simulated player in the game environment, a processor, and amemory coupled to the processor that stores machine instructions causingthe processor to allocate a plurality of tournament participants to theplurality of game environments; eliminate participants achievingpredetermined results from the tournament, creating open participantslots in the plurality of game environments; and periodicallyre-allocate one or more remaining participants to alternative gameenvironments according to predetermined rules.

Further embodiments may provide methods of balancing the number ofparticipants competing in multiple separate game environments, eachsimulated by a separate game server, in an electronic, multiple-playertournament for a skill-based game. Methods may include allocatingtournament participants to the multiple separate game environments,periodically re-allocating one or more of the participants toalternative game environments when the number of participants in any ofthe multiple separate game environment drops below a predetermined limitdue to participants being eliminated from the tournament, therebycreating open participant slots in the multiple separate gameenvironments, re-allocating the one or more participants whilstmaintaining a constant number of game environments when a combined totalnumber of open slots in all the multiple separate game environments,excluding a game environment with the least participants, is less thanthe number of participants still competing in the game environment withthe least participants, and deactivating one or more of the multipleseparate game environments and re-allocating the remaining competingparticipants in the one or more deactivated game environments toremaining active game environments when the combined total number ofopen slots in all the multiple separate game environments, excluding theone or more game environments to be deactivated, is greater than orequal to a number of participants still competing in the one or moregame environments to be deactivated.

Both the foregoing general description and the following detaileddescription provide examples and are explanatory only. Accordingly, theforegoing general description and the following detailed descriptionshould not be considered to be restrictive. Further, features orvariations may be provided in addition to those set forth herein. Forexample, embodiments may be directed to various feature combinations andsub-combinations described in the detailed description.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

Embodiments of the invention will now be described, by way of exampleonly, with reference to the accompanying drawings in which:

FIG. 1 illustrates a tournament system for an electronic,multiple-player game;

FIG. 2 is a flow diagram of logic used to manipulate the access ofprospective participants to a gaming tournament;

FIG. 3 is a flow diagram of logic used to conduct a gaming tournament;

FIG. 4 is a tabular example of a structure used for the increasing ofante values in the various levels of a gaming tournament; and

FIG. 5 is a flow diagram of logic used to rebalance game environments.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

The following detailed description refers to the accompanying drawings.Wherever possible, the same reference numbers are used in the drawingsand the following description to refer to the same or similar elements.While embodiments of the invention may be described, modifications,adaptations, and other implementations are possible. For example,substitutions, additions, or modifications may be made to the elementsillustrated in the drawings, and the methods described herein may bemodified by substituting, reordering, or adding stages to the disclosedmethods. Accordingly, the following detailed description does not limitthe invention. Instead, the proper scope of the invention is defined bythe appended claims.

An embodiment of the invention will now be described with reference toan electronic gaming tournament system and, more specifically, withreference to a gaming tournament system for a First Person Shooter gameplayed by numerous players, each playing on a personal computer, gameconsole, etc. over a Local Area Network (LAN). Embodiments of thepresent invention are not limited to LAN-based networks and may beimplemented in games played over larger distributed networks such as theInternet. Embodiments of the invention may be applicable to all games inwhich game environments have historically been simulated on aone-server-per-game-environment basis. Embodiments of the invention mayotherwise be applicable where, beyond a certain point, the simulation ofadditional independent game environments requires the expansion of thesystem to incorporate additional independent game servers, as opposed tosimply configuring one or more existing servers for the simulation offurther game environments. Embodiments are hence not limited to FPSgames. For example, embodiments of the invention may apply tomulti-player racing games, multi-player sports games and the like. Theinvention is also not limited in its application to electronic computernetwork games, but may equally be applied in multiple player arcadegames and in other gaming systems for conducting tournaments in whichlarge numbers of players may participate. Embodiments of the inventionmay be applied to multiple player gaming tournaments conducted overmobile telephone networks or other portable or handheld devices, inwhich case each player may compete in the tournament from a mobiletelephone or other portable device interacting with one or more gameservers and/or other mobile telephones/portable handsets over a mobiletelephone or other network.

In FIG. 1, reference numeral 10 generally indicates a tournament systemfor an electronic, multiple-player game. The system 10 includes aplurality of game servers 12 a . . . 12 n interconnected via a network14. Each server 12 a . . . 12 n includes a processor (not shown) and amemory (not shown) on which is stored machine instructions which allowsthe server to simulate a game environment for an electronic FPS gamewhich can be played by a plurality of players. The system 10 furtherincludes a plurality of gaming units 16 a . . . 16 n each of which maycomprise a personal computer 18 having its own processor (not shown),display means 20, which in the present embodiment is a computer monitor,and an input device such as a keyboard 22 and/or computer mouse (notshown). Each gaming unit 16 a . . . 16 n may be connectable to any oneof the servers 12 a . . . 12 n via the network 14. The network 14 may beimplemented using any one or more of a variety of communicationconfigurations including both wired and wireless types. Communication ofdata via the network 14 between the gaming units 16 a . . . 16 n andservers 12 a . . . 12 n may be accomplished using a variety ofcommunication protocols including both public and proprietary protocols.

The system 10 may further include a central control server 24 having aprocessor (not shown) and memory (not shown) coupled to the processor,which stores machine instructions for conducting the gaming tournament.In embodiments of the invention, control of the tournament may, however,be handled by a number of servers distributed across the system 10, andnot by a single control server 24.

The system 10 may further include a storage facility 26 which is used tostore a record associated with each tournament participant. Each recordmay contain both personal information about the player such as its name,identity number, residential address and the like, as well asgame-related information such as the game environment to which theplayer is allocated and the net value of the player's tournament pointsbalance. Additional records may exist for the purpose of storinginformation in respect of specified team rosters, also known as clans,such as the names or system identifiers of players who may have chosento affiliate themselves for the purposes of regularly enteringtournaments open only to clans and in which the participants playtogether and remain together as a team for the duration of thetournament.

Each of the game servers 12 a . . . 12 n may simulate a gamingenvironment within which participants can manipulate simulatedcharacters to compete against each other. In the case of most FPS gamesthe gaming environment may consist of a fixed virtual three-dimensionalgame world with a pre-defined layout and appearance. In some games thelayout and appearance may, however, change dynamically as the gameprogresses. Each participant may be situated at its own gaming unit 16 a. . . 16 n and may have full control over a simulated character in oneof the simulated game environments. Each participant may interactdirectly with the environment through the simulated character itmanipulates. All participants competing in the same game environment maynormally have the same perception of the game environment, even thoughtheir individual views of the game environment, as displayed on theirindividual monitors 20, may at any given time differ depending on theposition of the character which they manipulate in the game environment,their health and their equipment. All participants may also be bound bythe same rules and game physics as dictated by the game environment,which rules and physics may in turn be dictated by the specific gamebeing played. Each participant may also see the simulated characters ofthe other participants competing in the same game environment on itsmonitor when those other characters are in the field of vision of itsown character in the game environment. A participant may then attempt tokill the characters of other participants by, for example, shooting atthem, throwing objects at them, detonating bombs, or in any number ofadditional ways as allowed for by the specific game.

The logic shown in FIG. 2 may be used to manipulate the access ofprospective participants to a gaming tournament. At a stage 100, arequest may be made to the control server 24 to allow the prospectiveparticipant access to the tournament from a game unit 16 a . . . 16 nvia the network 14, upon which request the server may request theprospective participant at stage 102 to indicate whether it holds anexisting participant account or whether it is a new participant. If theprospective participant indicates that it does not hold an existingparticipant account, the server 24 may initiate a sequence of events atstage 104 during which the prospective participant sets up a newparticipant account. During this sequence of events the prospectiveparticipant may be requested to enter certain identification informationincluding, for example, its name and surname, alias or username, aparticipant selected password and such other information as may benecessary to authenticate the prospective participant. Once theprospective participant has supplied the requisite information a uniqueparticipant record may be created and stored on the data storagefacility 26. The new record may contain all the identificationinformation as provided by the prospective participant. The record mayalso include a participant's tournament points balance which gives anindication of the tournament points available to the participant.

After creation of a new participant account, or if the participantindicates that it holds an existing participant account, the participantmay be requested to enter its unique username or alias at stage 106 anda password. A participant authentication module may then authenticatethe identity of the participant. If authentication is unsuccessful, theprospective participant may be refused access to the tournament at astage 108. On successful authentication of a prospective participant,the prospective participant may be allowed access to the tournament as aparticipant at a stage 110.

In some instances, entry into the tournament may be free and prizes mayor may not be awarded. In other instances, participants may pay apredetermined amount of money to enter the tournament, in which caseprizes, in money or otherwise, may be awarded to one or more winners.Prizes may bear any relation to the sum of entrance fees collected. Uponregistration, the entrance fee (if any) may be deducted from theplayer's account. Prior to commencement of the tournament, entrants maywithdraw their entry in which case they may be refunded any entry feesalready paid. After commencement of the tournament, no refund may bepossible even if the player subsequently withdraws from the tournament.

The logic shown in FIG. 3 may be used to conduct a gaming tournament. Atthe start of a tournament, each participant may be allocated apredetermined fixed number of tournament points at a stage 200, or inthe case of clan tournaments the points will be allocated to the claninstead of to the individual participants. The tournament points may becredited to the participant's or clan's tournament points balance andstored in its participant or clan record. At a stage 202, eachparticipant may be allocated to one of the game environments simulatedby one of the game servers 12 a . . . 12 n so that there is an equalnumber of participants competing in each of the game environments or, inthe case of clan tournaments, clans and their members may be allocatedsuch that there are a specified number of clans in each gameenvironment. The specified number may be assumed to be two clans pergame environment. In a clan tournament, if an uneven number of clansenter the tournament, one of the clans may be chosen to sit out untilsuch time as another clan has been eliminated from the tournament. Theclan that was sitting out may then be allocated to the game environmentfrom which the clan was eliminated. Alternatively, entry into clantournaments may be limited to an even number of clans. A tournament maybe split into different levels, and each level may be split into rounds.Each level may last for a defined period of time, within which period oftime one or more rounds of the game may be played. Rounds may last fordefined periods of time or otherwise until defined objectives arecompleted.

At the start of each round, each participant or clan may be required topay an ante into a pot for that round, at a stage 204, to allow itaccess to participate in that round. At the start of each level, theamount of the ante to be paid by each participant or clan at the onsetof each round in that level may be set. The ante may be paid from theparticipant or clan's tournament points. A defining characteristic ofthe tournament may be that the ante increases according to a fixedschedule at the start of each level, at a stage 206. A sample structurefor the increasing of ante values is shown in the table in FIG. 4.Embodiments of the invention may, however, incorporate additionalvariations of ante structures.

The fact that each participant or clan may be required to pay an ante atthe start of each round may ensure that all participants or clansactively take part in the tournament. The absence of antes may otherwiselead to participants or clans abusing the tournament system in a numberof ways. For example, a participant or clan could choose not to play(by, for example, temporarily disconnecting from the game environmentand reconnecting at a later stage) in the early rounds of the tournamentand wait for the tournament field to thin out before rejoining thetournament. Alternatively, a participant or clan could amass a highbalance early on in the tournament and then disconnect from the gameenvironment in order to maintain its lead for an artificial period oftime. In the most perverse example, a participant or clan may amass atournament points balance in excess of half of the total tournamentpoints in circulation in a time-restricted tournament, and bydisconnecting from the game environment it may assure itself victory.

At the start of each round, a participant or clan's tournament pointsbalance may be inspected at a stage 208. If the participant or clan'stournament points balance has been reduced to nil, it may be eliminatedfrom the tournament at a stage 210. Embodiments may allow for eliminatedparticipants or clans to refresh their tournament points by, forexample, paying additional entry fees.

Even though a large variety of formats of FPS games, all of which may beemployed in tournaments, are available, only three of these formats arediscussed here. These three formats are clan formats, team formats andindividual formats. Clan formats may be similar to team formats, savethat in clan formats participants play as members of teams that arenominated prior to the start of the tournament. Furthermore, in clanformats, a tournament points balance may be maintained for each clan inthe tournament instead of for each individual. References to aspects ofthe game relating to the team format can be interpreted to apply equallyto the clan format.

Embodiments employing the team format of the game may allow for anynumber of teams to compete against one another in a game environmentbut, for the sake of clarity, a scenario where only two teams compete ina game environment is explained here. In clan tournaments, the clanroster may be nominated and fixed prior to tournament and clans may thusremain fixed for the duration of the tournament. In team tournaments,participants may enter as individuals and may be allocated to gameenvironments by the control server 24. In the latter case, each of theparticipants allocated to a specific game environment may therefore bedivided into one of the two teams, while in the clan format each clanand its constituent participants may be allocated to a game environmentand participants remain in the same team for the duration of thetournament. The participants on the two teams may then attempt to killthe characters of participants on the opposing team, and/or may attemptto achieve certain combined team objectives such as capturing theopposing team's base. In the individual format, each participant mayattempt to kill the characters of all the other participants competingin the same game environment, and/or may attempt to achieve certainother game objectives which may be determined by the specific game beingplayed.

At the end of each round, the antes for that round, collected from theparticipants or clans competing in each game environment, may bedistributed to the tournament points balances of the participants orclans in that game environment. How the antes are distributed may dependon the format of the game being played. Commonly, in a clan format, thelosing clan's ante may be awarded to the winning clan for that round. Ina team format, the antes may be shared by the participants on thewinning team for that round. In an individual format, the antes may beshared among a subset of players chosen according to definedrequirements with respect to the achievement of objectives during thecourse of the round.

Some formats of the games may have distinct rounds, each round coming toan end when all but a specified number of the participants in the gameor else all the participants on one team have been killed, or when aplayer or team achieves the game objective. In this instance, each levelmay comprise a defined number of rounds of the game or otherwise lastfor a minimum period of time. Other formats of the game may, however,not have distinct rounds and in this instance artificial rounds may becreated by, for example, defining each round as lasting for a finiteperiod of time and defining each level as lasting for a finite number ofrounds or for a minimum period of time. In addition, even for formatswhere distinct rounds may exist, such rounds may take substantiallengths of time to complete and it may thus be preferable to createartificial time-based rounds and levels in order to ensure speedycompletion of the tournament.

In team formats, participants on the winning team may, for example,share equally in the antes contributed by the losing team at the end ofeach round. Players that did not participate in a specific round or thatwere eliminated from the tournament during the round may be counted asbeing on the losing team. In individual formats, a change in participanttournament points balances may, for example, be measured at the end ofeach round and the participant or participants with the highest pointsbalance increase may be awarded the antes contributed by all the otherparticipants.

In the paragraphs that follow, references to participant may applyequally to clans as well as individuals. In addition to the antes paidby each participant at the start of each round, tournament points mayalso be transferred between the tournament points balances ofparticipants on the occurrence of predetermined events during any round.During each round of the tournament participants may attempt to killopposition characters in a game environment by shooting them or by suchother means as are possible in accordance with the rules and physics ofthe game being played, all the while attempting to avoid their owncharacters being killed. Depending on the format of the game, theopposition characters may include all the characters of participants onan opposing team or all other characters of all participants present inthe same game environment at the same time

When, for example, participant A kills participant B, a defined numberof tournament points may be transferred from participant B's tournamentpoints balance to participant A's tournament points balance. The numberof tournament points may be defined by reference to the current level ofantes in the tournament, but may also be limited to a maximum ofparticipant B's tournament points balance (TPB_(B)) if TPB_(B) is infact lower than the number of points participant A may otherwise beentitled to. In such circumstances, if B were instead to kill A, thenthe amount of tournament points that B may thus receive may be similarlylimited to the maximum amount that A would be able to receive forkilling B.

If a participant's tournament points balance reduces to zero during anylevel, the participant may likewise be eliminated from the tournament atstage 210.

During a tournament, the server 24 may temporarily remove a participantfrom a game environment when the participant's tournament points balancebecomes insufficient. The participant may then be given an option torefresh its tournament points balance by, for example, paying anadditional entry fee. If the participant exercises the option it may bereturned to a game environment to compete further. If the participant,however, elects not to exercise the option, it may permanently beeliminated from the tournament.

A participant may also at any stage exit the tournament or may otherwisebe disconnected from the tournament prior to completion. This may bedone by the participant advising the server 24 that it wishes to do so,at which stage the participant may exit the tournament, or otherwise bythe participant's connection to the server 24 being lost. If aparticipant exits a tournament prior to the end of the tournament whilestill having a positive tournament points balance, the participant willcontinue to pay antes, in absentia, until such time as its balance isreduced to zero and it is officially eliminated from the tournament.Until such time as the participant's tournament points balance isreduced to zero, the participant may be free to rejoin the tournamentand continue playing. When a participant gets eliminated from thetournament, open participant slots are created in the game environmentsin which they were competing.

As players are eliminated from the various game environments, the totalnumber of participants in each game environment may become unbalanced.Unbalanced in this context may imply that one or more game environmentsmay have far more or far less participants than others. In order to giveall the participants in the tournament the same gaming experience or atleast to give all participants an equal, fair opportunity to compete inthe tournament, it may be necessary to periodically rebalance the gameenvironments. However, the rebalancing should be done in a way thatstrikes an even balance with the irritation caused to participants ofbeing transferred between game environments.

In principle, where participants are eliminated from one or more gameenvironments disproportionately quicker than from the remaining gameenvironments, but not enough participants have been eliminated to allowall of the participants in the least populated game environment to bere-allocated to alternative game environments, all game environments mayhave to be rebalanced to bring them back to average. Rebalancing in thisinstance may be done by taking participants from the most populated gameenvironments and allocating them to game environments with openparticipant slots.

Alternatively, where enough participants have been shed from the leastpopulated game environment to allow redistribution of the remainingparticipants still competing in that environment to alternative gameenvironments, this may be done. In this instance, the game environmentfrom which the participants were redistributed may be deactivated,thereby decreasing the total number of active game environments in thetournament.

The logic shown in FIG. 5 depicts an example of a method that may beused to rebalance game environments according to the principlesmentioned above. In order to explain the principles, let G represent thenumber of active game environments in the tournament, let P^(M)represent the number of participants still competing in the mostpopulated game environment, let P^(L) represent the number ofparticipants still competing in the least populated game environment,let E^(L) represent the number of empty participant slots in all theactive game environments excluding the empty slots on the leastpopulated game environment, let E^(M) represent the number of emptyparticipant slots in all the active game environments excluding theempty slots on the most populated game environment, let A represent theaverage number of participants still competing in the active gameenvironments on a per-server basis, rounded to the nearest integer, letM represent the minimum time limit between rebalancing events, inminutes, let R represent a percentage of the average number ofparticipants competing in all game environments below which arebalancing may be triggered, and let N represent the number ofparticipants remaining in a game environment below which a rebalancingmay be done.

At a stage 300 the time that has elapsed since the last rebalancing isconstantly monitored. If at least M minutes have passed since the lastrebalancing N is determined at a stage 302 according to the formula:

N=A×R

Once N has been determined, P^(L) is compared to N at a stage 304. IfP^(L) is less than or equal to N then a rebalancing may be done. If arebalancing may be done, P^(L) is compared to E^(L) at a stage 306. IfP^(L) is smaller than or equal to E^(L) then the game environment withthe least participants still competing may be deactivated, at a stage308, and the participants in that game environment may be reallocated tothe remaining (G−1) active game environments at a stage 310. If,however, P^(L) is larger than E^(L), (P^(M)−A) is compared to E^(M) at astage 312. If (P^(M)−A) is less than or equal to E^(M) then (P^(M)−A)participants still competing in the most populated game environment maybe reallocated to the other (G-1) active game environments at a stage314. The process may then be immediately repeated such that the numberof participants in each game environment is again greater than or equalto N.

The winner of a tournament may, for example, be the last participantremaining after all other participants have been eliminated before theend of the tournament by reduction of their tournament points balancesto zero.

As described above, a participant may have to kill the character of anopponent in order to achieve a transfer of tournament points into itstournament points balance. Accordingly, a penalisable result may occurif a participant's character is killed. A participant may, however, alsobe rewarded for inflicting injury to an opponent's character withoutkilling it. The determination of the amount of tournament points to betransferred between the tournament points balances of the playersinvolved may then take into account the severity of the injury caused.

In certain FPS games, it may be possible for a participant to kill itsown character in the game environment. This may commonly be referred toas player suicide. In addition, it may be possible for a participant toinjure or kill another participant on the same team. This may commonlybe referred to as a team kill. It may be possible for the system torecognise a suicide or a team kill as a penalisable result and theparticipant may be penalised accordingly.

In some versions of FPS games, the game server may introduce additionalcharacters in the game environment that are not controlled by otherparticipants, but rather by the server itself. These additionalcharacters are known as bots among players of FPS games and may functionin exactly the same way as all human-controlled characters. Bots may becapable of killing human-controlled characters and vice versa.

Tournaments for games played according to the present invention mayspeed up the play of tournaments by eliminating players faster,thereafter moving the remaining players between servers in order to keepthe servers balanced and the gameplay fair for all players.

Generally, consistent with embodiments of the invention, program modulesmay include routines, programs, components, data structures, and othertypes of structures that may perform particular tasks or that mayimplement particular abstract data types. Moreover, embodiments of theinvention may be practiced with other computer system configurations,including hand-held devices, multiprocessor systems,microprocessor-based or programmable consumer electronics,minicomputers, mainframe computers, and the like. Embodiments of theinvention may also be practiced in distributed computing environmentswhere tasks are performed by remote processing devices that are linkedthrough a communications network. In a distributed computingenvironment, program modules may be located in both local and remotememory storage devices.

Furthermore, embodiments of the invention may be practiced in anelectrical circuit comprising discrete electronic elements, packaged orintegrated electronic chips containing logic gates, a circuit utilizinga microprocessor, or on a single chip containing electronic elements ormicroprocessors. Embodiments of the invention may also be practicedusing other technologies capable of performing logical operations suchas, for example, AND, OR, and NOT, including but not limited tomechanical, optical, fluidic, and quantum technologies. In addition,embodiments of the invention may be practiced within a general purposecomputer or in any other circuits or systems.

Embodiments of the invention, for example, may be implemented as acomputer process (method), a computing system, or as an article ofmanufacture, such as a computer program product or computer readablemedia. The computer program product may be a computer storage mediareadable by a computer system and encoding a computer program ofinstructions for executing a computer process. The computer programproduct may also be a propagated signal on a carrier readable by acomputing system and encoding a computer program of instructions forexecuting a computer process. Accordingly, the present invention may beembodied in hardware and/or in software (including firmware, residentsoftware, micro-code, etc.). In other words, embodiments of the presentinvention may take the form of a computer program product on acomputer-usable or computer-readable storage medium havingcomputer-usable or computer-readable program code embodied in the mediumfor use by or in connection with an instruction execution system. Acomputer-usable or computer-readable medium may be any medium that cancontain, store, communicate, propagate, or transport the program for useby or in connection with the instruction execution system, apparatus, ordevice.

The computer-usable or computer-readable medium may be, for example butnot limited to, an electronic, magnetic, optical, electromagnetic,infrared, or semiconductor system, apparatus, device, or propagationmedium. More specific computer-readable medium examples (anon-exhaustive list) may include the following: an electrical connectionhaving one or more wires, a portable computer diskette, a random accessmemory (RAM), a read-only memory (ROM), an erasable programmableread-only memory (EPROM or Flash memory), an optical fiber, and aportable compact disc read-only memory (CD-ROM). Note that thecomputer-usable or computer-readable medium could even be paper oranother suitable medium upon which the program is printed, as theprogram can be electronically captured, via, for instance, opticalscanning of the paper or other medium, then compiled, interpreted, orotherwise processed in a suitable manner, if necessary, and then storedin a computer memory.

Embodiments of the present invention, for example, are described abovewith reference to block diagrams and/or operational illustrations ofmethods, systems, and computer program products according to embodimentsof the invention. The functions/acts noted in the blocks may occur outof the order as show in any flowchart. For example, two blocks shown insuccession may in fact be executed substantially concurrently or theblocks may sometimes be executed in the reverse order, depending uponthe functionality/acts involved.

While certain embodiments of the invention have been described, otherembodiments may exist. Furthermore, although embodiments of the presentinvention have been described as being associated with data stored inmemory and other storage mediums, data can also be stored on or readfrom other types of computer-readable media, such as secondary storagedevices, like hard disks, floppy disks, or a CD-ROM, a carrier wave fromthe Internet, or other forms of RAM or ROM. Further, the disclosedmethods' stages may be modified in any manner, including by reorderingstages and/or inserting or deleting stages, without departing from theinvention.

While the specification includes examples, the invention's scope isindicated by the following claims. Furthermore, while the specificationhas been described in language specific to structural features and/ormethodological acts, the claims are not limited to the features or actsdescribed above. Rather, the specific features and acts described aboveare disclosed as example for embodiments of the invention.

1. A method of conducting a tournament for an electronic multiple-playergame, comprising: (a) allocating participants in the tournament to aplurality of game environments; (b) allowing participants in each of theplurality of game environments to compete against one another; (c)eliminating a subset of participants achieving predetermined resultsfrom the tournament thereby creating one or more open participant slotsin the plurality of game environments; and (d) re-allocating one or moreremaining participants to one or more of the plurality of gameenvironments according to predetermined rules.
 2. A method as claimed inclaim 1, wherein the game comprises a skill-based game.
 3. A method asclaimed in claim 1, wherein each game environment is simulated by aseparate game server.
 4. A method as claimed in claim 1, furthercomprising: (e) re-allocating the one or more remaining participants atpredetermined time intervals.
 5. A method as claimed in claim 1, furthercomprising: (e) re-allocating the one or more remaining participants tothe one or more of the plurality of game environments when the number ofparticipants in the various game environments become unbalanced.
 6. Amethod as claimed in claim 5, further comprising: (f) re-allocating theone or more remaining participants to the one or more of the pluralityof game environments when the number of participants in any gameenvironment drops below a predetermined limit.
 7. A method as claimed inclaim 6, further comprising: (g) re-allocating the one or more remainingparticipants whilst maintaining a constant number of game environmentswhen a total number of open slots in all of the plurality of gameenvironments, excluding a game environment having the leastparticipants, is less than a number of participants still competing inthe game environment having the least participants.
 8. A method asclaimed in claim 6, further comprising: (g) deactivating one or moregame environments and re-allocating the one or more remainingparticipants in the one or more deactivated game environments to one ormore remaining active game environments when a combined total number ofopen slots in all of the remaining active game environments, excludingthe game environment to be deactivated, is greater than or equal to thenumber of participants still competing in the game environment to bedeactivated.
 9. A method as claimed in claim 8, wherein the one or moredeactivated game environments comprise a game environment having theleast participants.
 10. A method as claimed in claim 5, wherein thepredetermined limit is a predetermined percentage of the average numberof participants allocated to all the game environments.
 11. A tournamentsystem for an electronic, multiple-player game, comprising: (a) aplurality of game environments, each game environment simulated by aseparate game server and each game server being inter-connectable via acomputer network; (b) a plurality of input devices, each input deviceassociated with a tournament participant and connectable to a gameserver, and each input device enabling the tournament participant tocontrol a simulated player in one of the plurality of game environments;(c) a display associated with each input device for displaying theactions of the simulated player in the game environment; (d) aprocessor; and (e) a memory coupled to the processor that stores machineinstructions causing the processor to: allocate a plurality oftournament participants to the plurality of game environments; eliminateparticipants achieving predetermined results from the tournament,creating open participant slots in the plurality of game environments;and periodically re-allocate one or more remaining participants toalternative game environments according to predetermined rules.
 12. Atournament system as claimed in claim 11, wherein the game is askill-based game.
 13. A tournament system as claimed in claim 11,wherein the machine instructions further cause the processor to:re-allocate the one or more remaining participants at predetermined timeintervals.
 14. A tournament system as claimed in claim 11, wherein themachine instructions further cause the processor to: re-allocate the oneor more remaining participants to alternative game environments when anumber of remaining participants in the plurality of game environmentsbecome unbalanced.
 15. A tournament system as claimed in claim 14,wherein the machine instructions further cause the processor to:re-allocate the one or more remaining participants to alternative gameenvironments when the number of remaining participants in any of theplurality of game environments drops below a predetermined limit.
 16. Atournament system as claimed in claim 15, wherein the machineinstructions further cause the processor to: re-allocate the one or moreremaining participants whilst maintaining a constant number of gameenvironments when a total number of open slots in all of the pluralityof game environments, excluding the game environment with the leastparticipants, is less than a number of participants still competing inthe game environment with the least participants.
 17. A tournamentsystem as claimed in claim 15, wherein the machine instructions furthercause the processor to: deactivate one or more game environments andre-allocate the one or more remaining participants in the one or moredeactivated game environments to remaining active game environments whenthe combined total number of open slots in all the active gameenvironments, excluding the one or more game environments to bedeactivated, is greater than or equal to a number of participants stillcompeting in the one or more game environments to be deactivated.
 18. Atournament system as claimed in claim 17, wherein the one or more gameenvironments to be deactivated comprise the game environment with theleast participants.
 19. A tournament system as claimed in claim 15,wherein the predetermined limit is a predetermined percentage of anaverage number of participants allocated to the plurality of gameenvironments.
 20. A method of balancing the number of participantscompeting in multiple separate game environments, each simulated by aseparate game server, in an electronic, multiple-player tournament for askill-based game, comprising: (a) allocating tournament participants tothe multiple separate game environments; (b) periodically re-allocatingone or more of the participants to alternative game environments whenthe number of participants in any of the multiple separate gameenvironments drops below a predetermined limit due to participants beingeliminated from the tournament, thereby creating open participant slotsin the multiple separate game environments; (c) re-allocating the one ormore participants whilst maintaining a constant number of gameenvironments when a combined total number of open slots in all themultiple separate game environments, excluding a game environment withthe least participants, is less than the number of participants stillcompeting in the game environment with the least participants; and (d)deactivating one or more of the multiple separate game environments andre-allocating the remaining competing participants in the one or moredeactivated game environments to remaining active game environments whenthe combined total number of open slots in all the multiple separategame environments, excluding the one or more game environments to bedeactivated, is greater than or equal to a number of participants stillcompeting in the one or more game environments to be deactivated.